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Major Story Arcs
'''Unexpected Visitors''' The story began 3 years after the end of ''Friendship is Magic'', as Princess Cadance decided to move in to Castle Canterlot. Shining Armor came along with her, and a bit of friction began to form between Princess Celestia, Princess Luna, and their niece. Cadance’s jealousy of the ruling sisters’ relationship pushed her to begin acting out and actively wrecking everything around her in what could be compared to a childish fit. Shining did his best to contain his raging, incredibly out of character wife, but there was little he could do other than repeatedly facehoof and try to work as many long hours as he could manage to escape her wrath. Around this time, Queen Chrysalis quite literally appeared out of nowhere, seeking to reconcile with Celestia and make an effort at peace. This move caused expected resistance from Shining and Cadance, who were still dealing with the fallout the changeling queen had caused at their wedding. Chrysalis put the effort in to make things right, but not before stirring up a few fights and worsening the general situation at the castle by her very presence. Shining began to detach himself to avoid Chrysalis and kept busy with work, and so, feeling slighted and starved for attention, Cadance decided to cheat on him. This was generally regarded as a bad move, and Celestia was disgusted with her niece and her antics. Shining Armor was heartbroken, and soon had an affair of his own with a pyromancer, Willow Wisp. News of the event soon spread, and Celestia once again found herself torn, and decided to confront Willow. The two argued at length and became enemies, though the young mare found a way to stay in and around the castle. Twilight Sparkle came to Canterlot on a random visit and found out, only to become very angry with both her brother and former foalsitter. The situation escalated when Chrysalis later tried to get a little closer than simply ‘making up’ with Celestia, and proclaimed love for the frustrated and confused alicorn. Celestia’s confusion worsened as the anniversary of Discord’s imprisonment rolled around, and she found herself out in the statue garden, spending the night with her frozen former lover. Cadance, who had by this point become less an alicorn and more a pink tornado of destruction, strife, and selfishness, decided to mess with the statue. In doing so, she inadvertently freed the trapped draconequus, who was able to manifest as a small wisp of magic and float about, causing minor disturbances. At first he vowed revenge and spent his time tormenting the alicorn sisters, but in time, he shifted his focus to taking back his place at Celestia’s side. Distraught and torn between Discord and Chrysalis, Celestia decided to issue a test- she entrusted Chrysalis to take and hide the Elements of Harmony in a secure location. With the Elements gone and replaced by regular gems, Celestia made a show of opening the vault doors and told Discord he had 24 hours to take the Elements and do whatever he desired with them. Though the gems could have granted him more than enough power to wreck Equestria, the draconequus absolutely refused and clung to his resolve to see Celestia happy once again. She decided to attempt to bring him back, but without a plan to do so. Just as all hope seemed lost once again, Cadance and Willow began yet another fight, which culminated with the two coming to blows. Celestia saw her opportunity and encouraged the fighting, while spurring Luna to help her cast a summoning spell. By feeding off the strength of disharmony and hatred, the two sisters managed to summon Discord back into existence, though he appeared as a child and severely weakened. He and Celestia immediately reunited and rekindled their love, as Chrysalis returned to witness the scene and deliver horrible news- the Elements of Harmony had been stolen. '''The Lotus Killer''' While the party was still recovering from the devastating news and trying to formulate a plan, news arrived that a quadruple murder had occurred in Canterlot. A full family, with two foals, was found dead at the scene and mutilated viciously. Shining Armor began a formal investigation as Discord and Celestia tried to work to find the Elements. Cadance and Willow put their personal feud on hold as the pyromancer left to meet with a friend, and Chrysalis simply left the palace in shame after being rejected. With tensions high and the group left with two huge problems to solve, things began to get worse, and quickly. Willow Wisp set out to find her friend, Fleur de Lis, and get a bead on her whereabouts and activities. Given the mare’s reputation as the ‘Lotus Killer’, Willow had a sinking, and correct feeling that Fleur was behind the murders. After much convincing, Willow managed to arrange a meeting with Celestia to attempt to get Fleur help, as she was clearly disturbed and not in control of her actions. Celestia took the call with some hesitance, but managed to win Fleur over and agree to come back to the palace to be analyzed. After promising not to jail Fleur, Celestia quickly brought her to the dungeons for her own safety and that of those around them, swearing to personally commit to rehabilitating the mare herself. With the new threats emerging and the general confusion going on throughout the castle, Celestia ordered for her sister’s guard to be expanded with new recruits. After a long interview process, one of the regular guards working around the castle, Flare, was chosen to serve Luna. The princess of the night took in a few others as well, and began assisting in the efforts to deal with Fleur as well as Cadance. Cadance’s jealousy had at this point reached an all time high, and she ambushed and beat Luna, causing even more tension between the royals and earning Celestia’s anger. They eventually managed to fix their issues, and Celestia agreed to adopt Cadance, as she felt that much of her jealousy and bratty nature was due to her wishing she still had parents. The plan backfired. Badly. Meanwhile, Willow and Celestia reached an understanding, as the princess was incredibly grateful that the younger mare had come forward with Fleur. The two had a long talk about Willow’s place in the castle, and upon finding out that she was ‘homeless’, Celestia offered her a place to stay. Willow accepted, and continued to sleep with Shining as Cadance continued having affairs left and right. As their marriage began to crumble, Celestia tried to stay out of it, and work on curing Fleur. Fleur’s symptoms seemed to include a total loss of color, psychosis, insatiable bloodlust, and almost a split personality. Not even Discord was able to break through to her much or understand the nature of her problems, and the violent urges continued to worsen. Only by offering her understanding and a place in the castle once Fleur had recovered could Celestia instill any hope in the broken mare. Over time, they began to bond while Fleur was in control of herself, though she lapsed into a dark, murderous state completely at random. Eventually, Discord was able to figure out who had stolen the Elements of Harmony, and all other plans but to retrieve them came to a screeching halt. '''Demons of the North''' Against all odds, windigos had returned to Equestria, lead by an elder named Haelstrom. His whereabouts were unknown, as were those of the rest of his people, and very few leads existed to help begin the hunt for the Elements. The first to be located was Loyalty, which had found its way to the base of a mountain, and Flare left on a solo mission to retrieve it to prove himself worthy to Luna. He was captured by the rechristened Shadowbolts, and later rescued by Shining, Willow, and Discord, who killed off all but one of their number and encountered a windigo. Using what he had seen and sensed, Discord was able to pinpoint the remaining Elements bar Magic. As Cadance decided to cheat yet again, Shining stormed off, taking Willow with him. Shining decided to hunt down three of the remaining Elements- Generosity, Laughter, and Honesty in Neigh Orleans, Prance, and Mareabia- without Celestia’s approval or assistance. Willow convinced him to spring Fleur from prison to aid in the hunt, as her skills as an assassin would prove useful on the long journey. Together, they formed the Fellowship of the Spork, and set out for Neigh Orleans to secure Generosity. Discord confronted Shining and attempted to stop him, but was frozen in place by a spell that Celestia had taught him just in case a scenario like this came up. With his power weakened and on the edge of snapping, Discord waited for Celestia to free him, and by then, Shining was long gone. Celestia, Discord, Flare, Luna, Twilight, and Cadance were left to pick up the pieces and hunt Shining down, and so they tried to contact Chrysalis, to no avail. Twilight also left the group to go on safari in South Amareica, and so, she was unable to provide any help. Another source of aid was cut off as Cadance found out she was pregnant, and would be unable to assist the others in finding the Elements. Eventually, they split into two teams- Celestia and Discord were to go to Mareabia and cut off Shining in a guess that he would head there last, while Luna and Flare went after Kindness in the far north. Without hesitation, the two teams split up and raced for the Elements. Luna and Flare arrived at their destination, only to be met by a windigo and its army. Luna was encased in ice while trying to protect Flare, and her barely managed to swipe Kindness and hide her frozen form before being captured himself. Flare was dragged to the ice palace of a windigo subordinate, and held captive for days on end before managing to escape. He eventually managed to break out of the building and haul Luna back home to thaw, concerned about his princess and budding love interest. With Kindness successfully in hoof, two sixths of the work was done. At the same time, Celestia and Discord made the long flight to Mareabia in search of Honesty. Along the way, Discord managed to shift his form several times, eventually ending up as a tuning fork before managing to regain his normal body. With his powers back to their normal level, Discord brought Celestia to the border town at the edge of Equestria, and they quickly began to set up a base of operations. While Celestia sought Honesty, Discord began buying gyros and animating them into soldiers, dubbing them Stephano #1-xxxx. After the base was prepared and an army amassed, the pair found Honesty beneath an oasis and tucked inside a hidden tomb, guarded by an incredibly cliché golem. The monster was easily defeated, and the Element count rose to three. Meanwhile, Shining, Fleur, and Willow, who had taken Loyalty with them, headed for Neigh Orleans in search of Generosity. Shining quickly found the Element, and the three of them started a string of affairs, spiteful revenge plots, general shenanigans, and stupidity while on the mission. Tensions grew high, and Fleur left the group to run home to Celestia in search of comfort and safety, while Shining and Willow headed for Prance. Upon arriving at the castle, Fleur requested to be given a room and be chained to the floor, and Celestia granted the request. While she was locked down, Fleur began a ‘mind map’ by carving names, associations, and emotions into the wall and connecting them in her free time. Once Shining and Willow arrived in Prance, they booked a hotel, and promptly destroyed it with an ill-advised practice duel. Shining had refused to hold back and nearly wrecked the entire building, which caused Willow some concern. She decided to letter Celestia and, with quite a bit of reluctance, decided to trust and work with the princess. At Discord’s suggestion, she tried to figure out what was wrong with Shining, only to figure out that he was incredibly cold, and not much else. Fearing the worst, Celestia told Willow to take caution and watch for anything suspicious, and the two ended their communications on a good note. The following morning, Willow and Shining set out for the sewers, where Laughter was located. Shining lead the pair through groups of ponies that had been taken as thralls by the windigos, and they murdered their way through countless guards to get at the Element. Upon reaching the room where the gem was supposed to be located, Shining turned on Willow, and a windigo general, Whirlwind, revealed that he had taken the stallion under his control. Willow was quickly beaten down and left for dead, though she put up a fight to attempt to get Loyalty back and stop Shining. With no other options, she sent a letter to Celestia for help. Without hesitation, Celestia flew for Prance and retrieved the wounded Willow before flying her back to Canterlot. Celestia patched Willow up as the two tried to form a game plan, and became close over the course of a few days after agreeing to leave the past behind to save Shining, who Willow had fallen for. Furthermore, Shining had come back and captured Cadance to take her as his queen, adding more urgency to the matter. Discord connected Mareabia to Canterlot via portal and agreed to watch the sandy border as the two mares tried to hunt Shining down, only to receive news from Flare that he had been held in an ice castle far in the north while tracking Kindness. Celestia figured that the structure would be their best shot for finding Whirlwind, and hopefully, Shining, so she headed for the icy palace alone while Willow recovered. Upon arrival, Celestia began to sneak around the premises, lettering Cadance back and forth to get a feel for the layout and confirm that Shining was indeed there. After creating a distraction by blowing up a tower in which several possessed ponies resided, Celestia bolted inside to save Cadance, only to be confronted by Shining, who wore a crown with Loyalty, Generosity, Laughter, and Magic socketed into it. The two exchanged words and began to duel, and Celestia quickly overpowered and outwitted him by stealing Loyalty from the crown and blasting the stallion back. Just as Celestia finished knocking Shining around, Willow arrived at the ice palace by Discord’s request to protect her. Celestia ordered Willow to stall Shining while she went to rescue Cadance, and so the two friends squared off to a near draw before Willow managed to unbalance and dizzy him. Willow and Celestia reunited with Cadance in tow, before Whirlwind himself showed up. Not wanting to take a chance with an unfamiliar enemy, Celestia used all of her energy to force down the sun and remove all natural light from the world before grabbing Shining and teleporting the four of them as far away as she could before passing out. Discord showed up to bring them all safely back, and in time, Celestia came around to raise the sun once again. With all of the Elements of Harmony and a restored Shining Armor back in their possession, things were beginning to look up for the royals. However, new troubles were never far away for the group, and the latest threat surfaced when Celestia went to go and visit Fleur. The mare had slipped even further into her dark side, lapsing in and out of control of her body. She seemed to know about all that had gone on in the north, and it was revealed that Haelstrom, the windigo leader, had possessed Fleur de Lis and turned her into a killing machine. '''Victory, Betrayal, and Tragedy''' The news of Fleur’s possession came as a harsh blow to everyone, particularly Celestia, Willow, and Shining. They quickly worked to formulate a plan, but Discord was quick to point out that trying to remove Haelstrom’s grip upon Fleur had a high chance of killing her. Celestia, however, promised Fleur that she wouldn’t give up, and that the poor mare would soon have her life back along with a place in the castle. Fleur did her best to hold on, but soon fell under Haelstrom’s full control and was unable to resist his willpower any longer. Twilight and Luna agreed to assist with saving Fleur, as did Flare. Fluttershy soon visited Canterlot, only to get dragged into the entire mess along with the rest of the castle’s inhabitants. Celestia and Fluttershy quickly hatched a plan to use the Elements of Harmony, but the whereabouts of the other bearers was unknown. Discord suggested that swinging the Elements toward chaos would allow anyone to bear them, but the results would be completely unpredictable. After decided that the risk was worth the reward of saving Fleur, Celestia made the call to corrupt Honesty, Laughter, Generosity, and Loyalty. The princess herself took Honesty, Discord took Laughter, Luna took Generosity, and Willow Wisp took Loyalty. Fluttershy and Twilight took their respective, pure Elements, and the party set out to drive the Windigo from Fleur’s mind. Unfortunately, Haelstrom decided to stop biding his time, and broke out of the cell, using Fleur as his puppet. The possessed mare murdered her way through several guards, looking for Discord to exact revenge upon him for events that occurred long before Equestria’s founding. Fleur was eventually found, and Discord and Celestia used dark magic to enter Fleur’s mind and confront Haelstrom face to face while Luna, Flare, Willow, Shining, Twilight, and Fluttershy tried to keep Fleur’s body at bay. Luna ended up fighting with the mare one-on-one while the others prepared a blast shield in hopes to protect Fleur if Haelstrom could be pulled from her mind. After a long period of mental combat, Celestia and Discord managed to drag Haelstrom out into the open without killing Fleur in the process, and Willow was able to use Loyalty to charge a gigantic firestorm. The resulting inferno killed Haelstrom outright as the others worked to shield the innocents and themselves, and Flare was barely saved by Luna as he attempted to get to Fleur. The exhausted and liberated model fell into unconsciousness, but Celestia managed to resuscitate her and bring her back from the brink of death. With Fleur saved and everyone happy, things were finally stable… for all of five minutes. Cadance eventually gave birth, and named her child Lumon in honor of Celestia’s deceased father and the former king. Not long after, she proved to be an unfit mother due to her selfishness and tendency to act out, and so she and Shining divorced. This lead to a period of depression for Shining Armor, who later found love again with the aspiring DJ, Vinyl Scratch. Cadance, however, opted to manipulate the fragile and still unstable Fleur into a relationship. This allowed her to shield herself from Celestia, who was beginning to treat Fleur as a member of the family, and wanted only for Fleur to be happy and have back a stable, fulfilling life after the trauma she’d been through. Cadance’s plan backfired, however, and Celestia soon caught on and called her out. Fleur was furious, and began to once again cling to Celestia while Cadance’s manipulation, bitterness, and rage worsened. Cadance began to get extremely violent and even made an attempt on Celestia’s life, which the sun princess didn’t take seriously. The two dueled and Celestia ended up with a broken rib, which punctured a lung and almost killed her. Cadance was satisfied with the result, and it quickly became clear that something was very, very wrong within the palace. Once Celestia recovered, she decided that she needed a break to get away from Cadance, and so she and Discord set out to find his parents in the dragon homeland of Draconia. This trip resulted in another near-death experience for Celestia at the hands of spirit wolves, but she and Discord were saved by his mother, Lady Sapphire. The pair returned the favor by quelling an attempted coup and saving Sapphire’s life, and so peace talks between ponies and dragons began for the first time in history. With plans to set up a tour of Draconia to unify the seven dragon Holds in place, the princess and draconequus married under dragon tradition and returned home. Naturally, Celestia’s return home wasn’t met with anything less than more drama and stupidity from Cadance. In a final attempt at peace, Celestia adopted Fleur de Lis to both help the struggling mare and give Cadance a sister, but it was all for naught. The princess of love had turned out to be anything but, and was constantly in fights with Willow, Shining, and even Luna once again. After several more assassination attempts, Cadance challenged Celestia to a duel to the death for control of the throne, and after weighing her options, Celestia hesitantly accepted. Cadance had become a monster and a threat to the entire ruling body, as well as her ex husband and their son. The duel was over quickly, and ended with Cadance’s death. Celestia was let broken, horrified, and guilty, while the rest of the castle offered their support. Not a day after Cadance’s death, Celestia received a plushie of the fallen princess from her craftsman friend, Butterscotch, along with a note. Furious at the audacity of the stallion, Celestia stormed over to his shop, only to be met with unexpected news- there was a good possibility that Cadance hadn’t been herself, and someone else had been controlling her in an attempt to assassinate Celestia. '''The Great Bait and Switch''' Celestia and Butterscotch, who turned out to be more of a secret agent and spy than simple plushie producer, quickly began work on figuring out what exactly Cadance had been subjected to. Twilight Sparkle soon returned from her safari and also offered to help, though she began to distance herself from Celestia, enraged that her mentor had murdered her foalsitter and former best friend. The three worked in an uneasy trio while the others worked to find their places in life and deal with their grief. Meanwhile, the castle got work that Applejack had been captured by changelings and was being held in the Everfree forest. Chrysalis returned when contacted by Celestia to provide help, but was unable to give any specifics. She claimed that the leader there was brutal and efficient, but she had no sway over their actions, and the Canterlot party would have to do it on their own. Luna, Fleur, Willow, and Flare departed for Everfree and did some reconnaissance, only to return a few weeks later without results. Willow, Fleur, and Gilda eventually returned to the found hives in the forest and managed to extract a thoroughly shaken Applejack, who later went home. With everyone safe once again and all efforts focused upon the circumstances of Cadance’s death, the focus shifted elsewhere. Of particular note was Prince Blueblood, who had been leading the nobles in their hatred of Celestia, but was trying to re-establish his relationship with her after Cadance’s death. He eventually met a homeless stallion named Creeping Moss, who quickly became a fixture of the castle. His introduction, along with the return of General Derpy Hooves from her military outing in Zimbabwhinney and Princess Luna’s decision to lock herself away for months after Cadance’s death, drastically altered the atmosphere of the castle. Blueblood and Moss eventually entered into a relationship, causing the prince to open up a bit and begin taking a role in military affairs under Shining armor. He became much happier and more sociable, and resolved to actually begin helping and taking on duties. Moss, in the meantime, began focusing on making connections within and outside the castle, including Butterscotch. He stumbled upon Butterscotch’s experiments and decided to assist him in unraveling the mystery of the neurotoxin that Cadance had been administered with. Twilight Sparkle helped the two stallions in their pursuits, though she began to distrust Moss and focused upon rebuilding her relationship with Butterscotch, who was an old friend. It was around this time that Rainbow Dash and Rarity made the move from Ponyville to Canterlot, each in pursuit of their dreams and expanding their influence. Rainbow Dash ended up reconnecting with Gilda and entering into a relationship, while Rarity began working for Hoity Toity and working out of his shop, POSH. Rainbow eventually met up with the Wonderbolts while in town, and resumed her training to join the team, surprising absolutely no one. One more new arrival joined the posse in Canterlot in the form of Jardin de Lis- Fleur’s abusive father- who wanted to take his children, the other of which was Butterscotch’s mate, Florence- back to Prance. Celestia refused to allow it, and the two butted heads on more than one occasion. As the months wore on, Creeping Moss entreated Shining Armor to join him and Blueblood on an expedition to go hunting for gems in a cave outside of Canterlot. The trio set out and managed to make their way into the depths, only for Moss to bash Shining over the head with a large rock, rendering him unconscious. Moss revealed himself to be a changeling princess, Instar, in disguise, and allowed Blueblood to leave with his life. Once Shining awoke, Instar demanded that he give her Cadance’s body so that she could study it. Reluctantly, he agreed, and Instar began revealing her true nature to the few she trusted- Willow, Butterscotch, and Rarity among them. Instar decided to keep up her role in figuring out the neurotoxin, as it proved a threat to her people as well as the ponies. She kept her motivations and goals a secret from all but a few, and eventually entered into a relationship with Rarity after she split from Fluttershy. The experimental union ended in disaster, and things soon returned to normal for Rarity and Fluttershy while the investigation heated up around them. Instar eventually smoothed things over with Blueblood and found herself a place within Canterlot, as did Chrysalis on a more permanent basis. With the changelings no longer a threat, the entire focus shifted to finding out who was responsible for Cadance’s death, and decoding the mysterious poison that Butterscotch had found in her bloodstream. '''Falling From Grace''' With Instar, Butterscotch, Twilight, and Celestia all working on breaking down and analyzing the poison, tensions began to get high in Canterlot as stress levels boiled over. Luna kept herself locked away, Fleur attempted to rehabilitate and reintegrate into society with Celestia’s help, Flare was dumped, Willow spent her days kicking down doors, and Derpy continued to make a general nuisance of herself. Naturally, during the downtime and tense waiting periods, other problems began to fall into place, beginning with a misstep on Celestia’s part. Fed up with having to hide herself from her people simply to maintain the status quo, Celestia made the risky decision to reveal her marriage to Discord to the public. Predictably, a public outcry soon followed, with the populace ending in a nearly 50/50 split between supporters of Celestia’s controversial love and those calling for her to be dethroned. Ponies in the latter camp began calling themselves the ‘CRF’, or Celestian Resistance Force, and slowly began to organize with plans to oust Celestia in order to keep Canterlot safe. The public split caused Celestia to lapse into a depression and drove Discord to anger over the peoples’ ungratefulness, but he began working tirelessly to improve his public image instead of lashing out. Eventually, his standing turned mostly positive, and the CRF numbers decreased to around 40% of the overall population of Canterlot as a result. Another threat soon popped up in the form of the griffons, who had unified and were planning to attack Canterlot. Flare got word of the incoming invasion, and began researching and preparing new guards alongside Dusk, a mercenary-turned-employee, in case of war. The Wonderbolts also began to get involved, and Spitfire started a new training regimen while canceling all flight shows to better prepare. Flare continued to keep watch on the would-be invaders as time went on, and took note that they had taken over a small island off the coast of Manehattan. Perplexed by the move, he and a few others spent their time trying to find a possible motive while the rest of the inner circle of the castle dealt with the CRF and neurotoxin. The CRF movements and tactics were mostly uncertain until Applejack returned to Canterlot, bearing a large carriage full of food for Celestia’s soldiers. She was attacked by an undercover CRF agent, and days later, another group of members retaliated by burning down Sweet Apple Acres and killing Granny Smith. Applejack and Big Macintosh moved into Canterlot to support Celestia, while Pinkie Pie’s family also fell victim to hardship. Griffons attacked Pinkie’s rock farm and slaughtered her parents, putting the two earth ponies in a similar situation and underscoring the current threats to Canterlot’s stability. Fortunately, as things degraded from within Canterlot and around the borders of Equestria, significant progress was made with the neurotoxin. Instar and Twilight, though they refused to work with each other directly, were able to recreate the toxin using a cave flower called Moon Lilies. Thinking their work complete, the two mares and Butterscotch settled down and began to work on a cure. Butterscotch soon remembered some information he’d obtained on his previous travels, and informed Instar that the Moon Lilies weren’t the missing ingredient they’d searched for this entire time. This meant that Instar had effectively created a second poison, which, if blended with the original, would prove nearly unstoppable. Distressed by the news, Instar and Blueblood set out to South Amareica to gather the original ingredients to begin re-cracking the neurotoxin. With Instar out of the house, Twilight began to refocus her efforts toward her feelings toward Butterscotch. Unfortunately for her, the stallion was engaged, and all her affections did was cause even more stress for Butterscotch. Twilight soon became a victim of the tension as well, and began to write a book to help keep her thoughts in order. She continued working tirelessly on the toxin, even without the foreign ingredient, and managed to produce more than enough to work with. As Instar came back, Twilight moved in with Butterscotch permanently, and she finally made her move. Twilight and Butterscotch progressed to an intimate level, and after their first encounter, Twilight left him her book and fled from the house. When Butterscotch awakened, he found the book to be a collection of borderline-insane rambling, histories, and details about Twilight’s life, including the fact that she was the one who had made the neurotoxin to begin with, used it on Cadance, and wanted Celestia dead. Twilight became a vigilante, hiding out in Canterlot with her father, Nightlight, and working to perfect her toxin. Butterscotch left for South Amareica with his former partner, Keylime Stageright, thinking Twilight would be heading for the source. This assumption proved to be wrong, and despite a few close encounters with Willow and others, Twilight managed to effectively hide away while Instar worked on a cure as quickly as she could to pre-empt Twilight. When the information reached Celestia, she immediately sent Discord to hunt Twilight down, and after a short struggle, Twilight managed to inject Discord, effectively turning him into her personal pet. Celestia immediately knew of this thanks to her marriage bond, and sent Shining Armor and Willow to engage Twilight and Discord. A violent brawl ensued, in which Willow was almost killed and Twilight was seriously injured. Discord swept Twilight away to a secret location, where it became quite clear that she had literally lost her mind. Twilight eventually lost track of time and trusted her toxin to hold up while she rested, but the new, combined strain proved to be weaker, and so Discord had time to inject her between doses of his own. With Twilight outsmarted and under his command, Discord brought her back to Canterlot once he had his willpower back, and Twilight Sparkle was promptly jailed. '''The Eve of War'''